How does your team scout?

[Zach O]

2337's scouting system has come a long way since we first started. Our data is also a combination of pit scouting and match scouting, although match scouting is much heavier then pit scouting. This year, I'd go around to every pit, take a picture of each team's robot, and ask questions we felt were important to display on a sheet for the drive team before every match (the only question we thought we needed was do you hang, and if so, how do you hang?). I'd input that into an Excel scouting program that we change every year to fit the game. After that, I'd either enter the match schedule, or have someone do that while I was off pit scouting. I then print sheets, which we scout 4 robots per sheet, and give each person 3 sheets per scouting shift, which they have on a schedule for when they are need to scout. They scout all the matches they need to, and I go to the stands every 4 matches, take 6-8 sheets (depending on if we were scouting human players), and enter them all. I kept up changing sheets and entering data all day with help from one assistant. Before all matches, I'd also deliver a sheet to the drivers, displaying all information they might need.

What is on our scouting sheets:

• Starting Position
• Did they move in autonomous
• Where there any penalties on the team
• Points scored in autonomous, and from where (near, mid, or far)
• Points scored in teleoperated, and from where (near, mid, or far)
• Did the robot attempt to hang? Were they successful? Did they suspend another robot?

What is on the sheet we give to the drive team:

• Predicted score
• Where all usually started (based on averages, just to show a trend)
• Average points scored during a match
• Average points earned during a match for every team (this would include hanging)

Early on, we used to measure time it took to hang, but we decided it was too inaccurate, and we just used a did they attempt in fail, or attempt in succeed, or not attempt at all. After we get all of this data, the computer would organize it into a top 24 teams (which in the beginning, we mainly picked from), but as we went on, we also came up with our list of the 24 teams we wanted. In Michigan, we'd have a list of teams that we wanted on Friday, and give it out to a few people in the stands. They'd take notes, and we'd go over them shortly before alliance selection and makes some decisions (for Atlanta, we made this list on Thursday and Friday, and watched teams both days).

That's just what we do. It's worked well so far, and we both won Ann Arbor with that system. If you want information on how we did it in previous years, or more information, private message or email me.